Korean-American writer-director Josh Kim travels to the Hong Kong-Asia Film Finance Forum with “Camellia Girl,” which is in development. His track record particularly includes Thailand’s 2015 Oscar entry “How to Win at Checkers (Every Time),” HBO Asia’s chilling horror drama “Forbidden,” as well as a host of short films for Apple, Google, NPR and The Wall Street Journal.
The story revolves around two Korean American sisters who return home to attend their father’s funeral in rural Texas. The older sister lives a successful and stable life. However, the younger one was addicted to drugs, dropped out of college and ran up debt in an attempt to fulfill the dream of becoming a singer. When the sisters arrive home, they learn that their father left a rare antique fan worth more than half a million dollars “to the child who finds it first.” This begins a stampede that will change the sisters’ lives forever.
“Camellia Girl” is a project I started writing after my father died. My mother has Alzheimer’s and he was taking care of her. “After my father died, I spent a lot of time at home in Texas with my mother,” Kim said.
“The title comes from a song that the main character sings in the movie. It’s her father’s favorite song. It also happens to be my father’s favorite tune. It’s an old Korean song (a Korean musical genre) that evokes a feeling of longing and loss. If you ask people in Korea what the cause of this loss is, everyone has an answer Different. Some say it’s a lover who’s found a new life. For others, it’s nostalgia for a time when anything seemed possible. That’s the inspiration for “Camellia Girl,” a story about sisterly bonds, second chances, and caring for the people we love.
Kim is looking to complete HAF’s $2.3 million budget and attach two co-producers and a sales agent. The film is produced by Douglas Seok through Sea Oak Studios. Sok is a producer and cinematographer previously involved with the Cambodian independent film “White Building” and three films by Lee Isaac Chung, including Chung’s Oscar-winning Minari. He is also working on Chung’s upcoming film “Twisters” for Universal Studios.
“It’s been almost 10 years since I made ‘How to Win at Checkers’. I went to China after that to work on ‘Folding Beijing’, but with censorship restrictions and the country’s coronavirus lockdown, it became a project I realized couldn’t continue.” In it and directing it. So, we left (studio) Wanda looking for a new director for the Chinese version. It’s difficult to make movies. “If it comes true, ‘Camellia Girl’ will be my second movie,” Kim says.
Josh Kim